Gardenview

The knitting continues behind the scenes while ~ ahem ~ too many long-completed shawls sit waiting patiently to be blocked. And prizes yet to be awarded … they’re coming, I promise!

Outside, Mother Nature continues to show she is in charge and nothing is quite as it should be in the garden. How could it be, when the October snowpocalypse is followed by 80-degree temps in March? To say the bloom cycles are out of kilter isn’t the half of it.

The President peony in vintage McCoy vase

This double peony has been blooming great guns for two weeks ~ a full month ahead of its schedule ~ while the peony next to it in the bed isn’t near bloom yet. (Look at last week’s tag sale find with KnittingKittens: a real McCoy! Literally. A vintage Floraline pottery vase. Owl loves it with its geometric “angel fish” pattern.) I wish you could smell them. Positively heavenly.

Some of my roses are flush with blooms, too, seemingly a month ahead of where they would normally be.

Sadly, the meteorological mix-up robbed us of my favorite flowers of all ~ lilacs. There was not one single bloom on the reliable mature shrubs I have, nor anywhere in my neighborhood, nor the big hardy antique natives on my urban office block. Some combination of the too-early hot temps followed by a few freezes conspired to prevent buds from even forming. No pretty backdrop for my annual Mother’s Day pictures with Darling Bebe. This season, Yankee Candles will have to suffice. At least their “Lilac Blooms” is a pretty good facsimile, if ersatz.

In a cautionary way, it brings to mind a television commercial from childhood. I can’t remember the product, only a hazy jumble of images: a woman in a flowing dress with a crown of flowers, the rumble of thunder and the tagline ~ “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!”

Like this:

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This entry was posted on May 24, 2012 at 2:04 pm and is filed under gardening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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7 Responses to “Gardenview”

Gorgeous peony, and what a lovely find! Our garden is mixed up too, and I have a volunteer clematis going nuts in the middle of the privet hedge. Sorry you missed out on the lilacs, they were pretty nice around here this spring. Spring was very early in Aspen this year and I was surprised to see lilacs on every corner. Usually they don’t bloom until June! Finally, Mother Nature appeared in commercials for Chiffon margarine. I was just quoting that commercial to Little Luann when we were in Colorado!

The peonies look great in your new vase! The commercial iwas for Chiffon margarine. The jingle was “If you think its butter but its not-it’s Chiffon!” It was always followed by the line “Its not nice to fool Mother Nature!” Thanks for the memory Owl!

I can hear the voice in the commercial,, just seeing the words in your post.
Here in South Jersey we had lilacs, but the season was short; my DIL could only bring me a couple of bouquets. Strawberries came in early, but tree fruits may be in short supply this year.
The vase is the perfect color for the peonies. It’s the shape we’ve always called ‘pobbly.’ It just begs to be touched – like some yarn?

Thanks for the beautiful photo – what a color, let’s knit w/yarn that color! I also love that old commercial & quote it often. Thanks for the reminder that it was for Chiffon – I could only summon the woman w/ the flowery braid headband & all the animals around her. As she spoke, she raised her arms in a “Now, hear this!? motion.